Mental wanderings of a common man.

Obama wants Americans to turn in their neighbors if they oppose his healthcare takeover

The White House has a suggestion for you if you get an e-mail from someone or read something on the web about the Obama health care reform “that seems fishy”: report them. They’ve set up a special e-mail address you can forward it to where the administration will… um… well, they’re not saying what they’ll do with it. And that’s got Senator Cornyn of Texas concerned:

Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn is taking issue with a Tuesday posting on the official White House blog in which the Obama administration asks supporters to report back when they receive “an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy” to an official e-mail address: flag@whitehouse.gov.

“I am not aware of any precedent for a president asking American citizens to report their fellow citizens to the White House for pure political speech that is deemed ‘fishy’ or otherwise inimical to the White House’s political interests,” Cornyn writes today in a harshly worded letter to President Barack Obama in which he asks the president to immediately halt the effort.

Oh, I’m aware of a precedent for a government asking their citizens to report political speech they didn’t like but it wasn’t a president at the top. I find it astonishing that no one at the White House sees that, I might add.

This whole thing where suddenly, after 8 years of “speaking truth to power” and “making your voices heard” to the administration and to Congress being considered the height of patriotism, the Democrats and the general Left in this country are calling citizens registering their dissent “mobs” and “rioters” is just bizarre. Their opinion of the average citizen is clearly pretty low when they figure Americans can’t figure out where they stand on an issue and speak out on it without some kind of corporate sponsorship and a ride home on a bus. Knock it off, Mr. President.

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Or, I dunno, maybe the White House is trying to collect examples of the anti-reform tactics being used in an effort to undermine healthcare reform. Maybe be able to respond to misinformation being passed as “genuine”, such as the suggestion that the public insurance option being discussed will actually result in you being denied healthcare… which is a blatant lie, but it’s being passed around. Along with suggestions that if you forward emails to 10 of your friends, Bill Gates will send you a new PC.

Of course, that’s not as sexy as a conspiracy theory. Lacks the black helicopters.

Wow, I’ve never heard the one about the public option denying you healthcare. Where’d you see that?

Unless, of course, you haven’t actually seen that anywhere. Which would make that report less than “genuine” I suppose.

As for the “conspiracy” angle, that would require that the White House be doing something and not advertising it. They’re being quite open about wanting people to turn in e-mails and web sites that don’t support their particular brand of reform.

I can’t believe that our president is actually asking for the people to report fellow citizens that oppose the president’s health-care plan. What president Obama says is full of lies. Why don’t we listen to what real doctors have to say? Our health-care system needs tweaks, not a government take-over.
Republicans: If you aren’t one of the “fishy” people who disagree with the president’s healthcare plan, you are probably part of what Obama refers to as “an angry mob”
What has our country come to?